Debates feature prize fight match-ups amid multitude of candidates
A campaign with an early start and a multitude of contestants heads into high gear this week with a complicated set of debates. And while the contenders struggled mightily to qualify for these events, they will struggle even more to make their voices and their views clear in sessions with nine rivals also grasping and gasping for air time.
Here are some possibilities for illuminating exchanges:
— Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont v. former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware (Thursday). This is the prize fight of the week: two old guys (one grumpy, the other goofy), two men at the top of the Democratic polls, two political figures who have nothing in common except perhaps being members of the human race. Sanders has contempt for the brand of mainstream collegial politics that Biden practices, and Biden is wary of the firebrand left-leaning impulses of his democratic-socialist opponent.
— Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota v. Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey (Wednesday). These two ordinarily are on the same side in the Capitol, but Senate politics and presidential politics are two different sports — much like Canadian football and the NFL, only more violent. Both are tough competitors with strong prospects in Iowa next February.
— Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, v. Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado (Thursday). Buttigieg is a Harvard graduate and Rhodes Scholar; Bennet was editor in chief of the Yale Law Journal. This is the intellectual heavyweight matchup, perhaps the greatest of all time. Neither is a conventional presidential candidate, but each has ardent supporters and a nimble mind. Bennet is far less well known and will hope to use the debate stage to highlight his cerebral but approachable profile. Buttigieg must use this opportunity to put some policy meat on his popularity bones.
— Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii v. Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio (Wednesday). Both portray themselves as rebels, Gabbard against conventional American foreign policy, Ryan against the political establishment.
— Sen. Kamala Harris of California v. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York (Thursday). Both had moderate records and moved leftward, both had impressive campaign starts, and both have struggled for oxygen as the campaign has developed. It is unlikely that both will survive Iowa and the New Hampshire primary eight days later, so each would like a knockout punch.
— Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts v. the other nine (Wednesday). In some ways, Warren is the big winner from the Democratic lottery. She drew the least competitive debate field and, by happy coincidence, probably will be the most polished debater on the stage, with an answer and a proposal that has never seen an equal in all of American presidential politics.
— Marianne Williamson v. Andrew Yang (Thursday). No one outside their families and the staff members paid to plot their campaigns knows why either of these two unknowns is running for president, but Donald J. Trump proved that conventional candidacies can be destroyed in a large-contender field. In fairness, both are exceedingly accomplished, though not in politics.
— Former Rep. John Delaney of Maryland v. Rep. Eric Swalwell of California. Delaney is on the Wednesday card, Swalwell is on Thursday’s. But they make for an intriguing pair. Delaney has been campaigning (without much notice) for two years and has visited all 99 of Iowa’s far-flung counties. Swalwell has been campaigning for less than three months but actually was born in Iowa.
Both are earnest, serious and probably doomed. But both have bet everything on the Iowa caucuses.